Up for the challenge

A journey begins! A journey that I believe will bring about new vision, purpose, and intimacy with God. I am so desperately in need of God's amazing grace and power in my life. Not grace and power for the sake of having grace and power, but grace and power that will continually allow me to love and lead as He has called me.

To be really honest at times life seems to be lived on auto-pilot. We wake up, do the morning thing, going to work, having lunch, coming home, doing whatever we do at home, going to bed, and then getting back up and doing it all over again. 

This kind of schedule leaves me wondering if this is all that God has intended for us or is there really more?

I believe that there is more; so much more! But the failure to realize more involves more than just changing my routine, I must change my life, my values or possibly get back to what my values were, and re-prioritize what really matters in life.

So how can we do this?

I am beginning today to journey a little different, sometimes you just have to shock the system to wake it up again. I know that shocking the system is not always what we like to do, but at times it is necessary! We love to live comfortable, and at ease without stress, just doing the daily grind. But this will not shock you, it will only cause further complications that you will have to deal with later.

Jeremiah 29:13 says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." There is something about seeking after God with all of your heart that seems a little out of the ordinary. I mean, we do seek after Him right? But do we seek after Him or do we seek after what He can give us? 

Psalm 25:14 says, "The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them." I want to be a man that not only seeks after God for what He can do for me or even through me, but a man that seeks after Him, His heart, His mind, Him alone. I want to be a trustworthy son that is found close enough to Him that He confides in me His ways.

One of the ways I am doing this is reading through the Bible in 30 days and fasting for a week. It seems like a lot, but isn't knowing Him worth it? 

We do some pretty ridiculous things to know another person, but are we willing to be just as ridiculous to know Him? Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." If we want to know God we have to read His word; His word is Him! If we do not allow the word of God to penetrate our lives then we will only have an association with Him, living our lives aimlessly always wondering who we are and who He is.

Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

His word is alive, active, and ready to reveal His heart to you. 

Are you up for the challenge? 

It takes reading 40 chapters a day for 30 days. I know that it is more than usual, but all that needs to be done to shock your system with His word is re-prioritizing what really matters to you. You may have to turn off the TV for 30 days, you may have to allow your farm to burn up and die on farmville, you may have to cancel a couple of appointments. 

Whatever it is in your life it is worth getting to know Him more!

It takes human cooperation to fully connect with the power of God.

Philippians 3:7-8 says, "But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ